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Johannesburg - The SPCA has laid a charge of animal abuse against Limpopo's MEC for sports, art and culture, after 34 emaciated cattle at an open air museum had to be put down.

SPCA inspector Anton de Bruyn laid a charge against MEC Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba at the Letsitele police station on Thursday, Beeld reported on Friday.

He said the emaciated Nguni cattle were found dying of hunger and thirst at the Muti Wa Vatsonga open air museum in the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve.

"The animals were so weak that they couldn't get up. We had to put them down then and there," De Bruyn said.

A tourist who visited the museum, situated between Tzaneen and Phalaborwa, had notified the SPCA of the appalling condition of the animals, which had been without cattle feed for a month.

In a separate case, a criminal charge was laid at the Amsterdam police station by the Highveld Animal Protection Society against Mpumalanga's MEC for agriculture, Candith Mashego-Dlamini, and her department head, Nelisiwe Sithole.

This was after 48 pregnant Drakensberger stud cattle starved to death at Athole, a government-owned, experimental farm near the town, Beeld reported.

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